About Me

I have been working in the courthouse since 1989 searching real estate titles and dabbling in genealogy. In the past years I have assisted my husband in making a movie and working on other movie projects.

Monday, March 22, 2010

Major John Ward the person and patriot and father.

We have learned the following:
I gleaned this information from the book Frontiers Along the Upper Roanoke River by Clement.
He acquired many acres of land in Virginia making him a wealthy man. He married into a fine family. One of the first families of Virginia. (Anne Chiles) The Chiles family.
His wife died young after having five sons and two daughters. The daughters, Anne and Agatha were twins. He later married a prominent Campbell County widow, Mrs. Sarah Clark Lynch. They had no children.
For a while they lived near Anne’s brother probably Paul Chiles. His home was called Riverview in Halifax county.
He was a vestryman. According to the above book, in the Halifax County Court Minute book 2 page 504, there is recorded the following words. Oath of a vestryman of the Church of England.
I, John Ward, do subscribe to be conformable to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of Englands as by Law Directed.
He built a mill, surveyed and helped build roads.
He was the Captain of the County Militia and took oaths. Halifax County Book 2 page 467.
In 1778, he was a member of the Committee of Safety for Bedford County and was recommended for the office of major in the county militia and was shortly approved for that office.
He built his home The Mansion for his wife Ann Chiles Ward, but she died before she could move in. This property was located in Bedford County which would later be Campbell County.

I have also foundd a search area. Findagrave.com. I could not find any of their graves on this list, but there are thousands and you may find this useful.

3 comments:

Much of John's estate was passed down eventually to his great-grandson Col. Henry Ward Adams and Annie Pauline Floyd , whose home was known as Monteflora. John is buried on the property. His grave headstone reads 1708 and 1816, but despite being quite old, the stone does not appear to be the original gravestone. Unmarked graves around him are presumably his second wife, and possibly his first wife, although she may have been buried at the now missing Chiles graveyard. There are many descendants in this graveyard, as recent as the last few years. Outside the graveyard walls are many more unmarked graves, presumably slaves. On the topic of slavery, if you visit the house nearby, you'll see a brick hut out back that was used to quarter slaves temporarily. There is evidence of shackles, which would have been used, for example, by slave traders who were traveling through the area. Not a pleasant thought, but there it is. If you are interested, I can put you in touch with a cousin who lives outside Lynchburg, the current owner of nearby Locust Hill.

Henry Ward Adams was one of six children of Thomas Tunstall Adams and Matilda Ward. He was born June 20, 1823 and died December 25, 1899 in Campbell County, VA. He is buried next to his wife at the Ward ancestral home, the "Mansion" on the Staunton River near the mouth of the Otto River. None of Henry's three brothers married or had children, so he was the only son to carry on the family name when he married Annie Pauline Floyd on December 6, 1853 and subsequently raised 7 children. Henry was named for his mother's father, Henry Ward, son of John Ward and Ann Chiles.

Henry and his wife lost their estate, "Monteflora," at the conclusion of the War Between the States. Henry fought for the confederacy, serving as a colonel in the 53rd Virginia Militia of Campbell County, VA from 1860 to 1862. Their son, Henry Ward Adams Jr., who was born during the Civil War, would later buy back his parent's estate, as well as the ancestral Ward estate, the "Mansion," and "Reed Creek," the ancestral home of Robert Adams Jr. and his wife Penelope Lynch, as a result of his financial success in the lumber business.